An ex-councillor from Stevenage was arrested last week after she joined protests in London.

Amanda King is a former Hertfordshire County Councillor and represented Old Stevenage from May 2013 to May 2017.

On Monday (October 14), she travelled down to London to join the Extinction Rebellion protests that have been happening in London for around two weeks now.

She joined the group in 2018 and began to protest with them.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) described themselves as an international "non-violent civil disobedience activist movement" and they've been protesting for the government to declare a climate emergency.

They want officials to take immediate actions to solve the climate crisis that is facing the world.

It comes after the United Nations stated that the world only has 12 years to reverse the effects of climate change.

Amanda said: "We were bringing attention to the fact that London through the selling of stocks and shares enables and supports the profits that fossil fuels make at everyone's expense.

An XR protester back in October 2018

"These fossil fuel companies have known about the impact on the climate from fossil fuels for about 50 years.

"It's an enormous problem that we're trying to bring to people's attention through this protest.

"It's supposed to be a positive, cooperative protest where we apologise to everybody, we cooperate with the police and it's peaceful."

Amanda and other protesters headed to the cross-section of Threadneedle Street and Lombard Street at 8am.

"There were several hundred protesters and it was cold and wet. It was miserable," said Amanda.

"There were people holding big placards, there were people holding out leaflets and giving them out, there were others who were going up to the buses and cyclists who were delayed and they were apologising to them.

"What I did for several hours was just to sit on the ground and wait to be arrested. There were lots of us doing that.

XR protesters near the Bank of England

"Then some of the people I got into discussion with decided to lay down in Lombard Street rather than sit and I joined them.

"I was then arrested for obstructing the highway by lying down in the road.

"We feel this is necessary as it's an important issue and the government isn't acting to protect us.

When she was arrested by police officers, Amanda noticed she was shaking. Luckily, XR had legal volunteers who spoke to Amanda and other protesters to ensure they had thought things through and gave them legal support.

Amanda King (right) at a previous protest back in October 2018.

Along with her being arrested was a rabbi, an accident and emergency doctor, a plasterer, and a chef.

"It's not until you do something that's outside your normal realm of experience that you understand what it is your doing," she said.

"I was very cold and I didn't understand the process or what was going to happen next.

"My arresting officer and in fact my whole experience with the police that day is that they are very professional and caring because all of them appreciated we were being arrested for the first time.

"But it's not just about getting arrested, it's not about necessarily protesting in any way. There's actually all sorts of roles XR are looking for."

After she was arrested along with other protesters, they had to wait for an armoured vehicle to pick them up. As Amanda was so cold she was given a blanket and a cup of tea while they waited.

They were taken to Brixton Police Station and they remained there for around eight hours. They were then released without bail and remain under investigation.

Currently in Hertfordshire, there are a number of XR groups but Amanda is now trying to set up an XR group for Stevenage to allow other people to fight for climate change.

Protesters standing together with their arms in metal tubes to make removal more difficult

The group says they have three simple demands of the government. These are:

  1. To tell the truth about the climate emergency
  2. Act now and put in the place the legislation to commit the UK government to being carbon zero but 2025
  3. Look beyond politics and create a citizen's assembly on climate and ecological justice.